Baby Shark Testimonies

Pastor Scott Smith - May 17, 2026

This message continues through the book of Philemon by exploring why Paul was so confident in Philemon’s obedience and character. It explains that Philemon’s faith was not hidden or private—it was visible in the way he lived, loved, served, and impacted others. Paul points to the evidence of a life transformed by Jesus, describing how Philemon’s faith had refreshed and encouraged many people. Through the story of Onesimus, the message highlights the radical equality of the gospel, reminding us that in Christ, every person has value, dignity, and a place in the family of God.

This message also challenges believers to consider the long-term impact of their everyday decisions and personal testimony. Just as Philemon’s daily obedience created a reputation that pointed people toward Jesus, our lives also communicate what we truly believe. The message calls the church to live in such a way that others can clearly see evidence of Jesus in us—through our generosity, forgiveness, service, relationships, and love for others. Ultimately, it reminds us that the goal of the Christian life is not simply to claim faith in Jesus, but to live so faithfully that others are refreshed, encouraged, and drawn toward Him through our example.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

All right, so a week ago we started a series called 335, a study in Philemon. And basically what we've done is we've looked at a letter to Philemon from a man named Paul. And Paul wrote about a third of the New Testament of your Bible. He writes a very personal letter to a man named Philemon, a man we believe was of means and influential person in his community, had a church in his house. The letter we assume is written to him and particular members of his family. And in its original language, this letter is only 335 words. It's the shortest letter that Paul writes to anyone, but it's so personal and so profound. And while it says little numerically, it says much spiritually. And there's context here that we're going to dive into this week and next week so that we can learn together. Because what we're going to look at particularly in installment two of our letter to Philemon that we've eavesdropped, and I'll read through it again as we have at the onset of every conversation in this series, is we're learning that while Paul doesn't write much, he says much. And last week we looked at the kind of bookend approach to this letter, where Paul highlights as he writes with his protege Timothy and to other people, with other people he's doing ministry with, Paul highlighted this truth that we are better together. That the gospel mission, which is really a gospel mandate given by Jesus to take the good news that Jesus Christ saves to the world, has been given not just to one person but to people. And so Paul highlights that in his personal life. He highlights that in the way he writes. And this week we're going to learn from the life of Philemon because there are phrases that Paul uses in this letter that tell us a lot about the recipient of this letter, Philemon. And we're going to learn some stuff about some uh the storyline here that you might not know, but what we're gonna learn is that Philemon is responsible for results that he could not have predicted. What I mean by that is our decisions, whether we know it or not, will impact other people. And oftentimes our decisions, even on the daily, uh have more consequences than we might realize. Uh some of the things that add up over time. Oh man, I need to start exercising. And three years later, you're like, I really need to start exercising. And then five years after that, when you've gone through a couple sizes and now you're donating your old clothes to the Salvation Army because they don't fit anymore. Those daily decisions add up. I joke, of course, but the reality is Philemon's going to highlight something because Philemon experienced impact that I don't think he saw coming. And I think that's the case for a lot of us, and in fact, uh, you've experienced it. This idea that your decisions uh travel further than you realize has affected every single person's life in this room. I'll show you. I want to show you this picture. This is Thomas Edison. What did Thomas Edison invent? Does anybody know? You can shout it out. The light bulb. Yes, he invented the light bulb. Do you know what else he invented? The phonograph, or what you would call the record player. Love that. My wife and I got involved in collecting records a few years back, and we love it now. She is gracious to let me buy things like the Alabama Christmas album. She loves me, or the Jim Neighbors Christmas album. In case you don't know who that is, that's Gomer from the Andy Griffith Show. That is love right there. You want to know what love looks like when you've been married for over 20 years? It's your wife buying you the Jim Neighbors Christmas album because she tolerates your taste but loves you. Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, the record player. He also invented the first motion picture camera. So the next time you watch a movie, you can thank Thomas Edison. Do you know what else you can thank Thomas Edison for? This if you don't know it, you're welcome. Sing it with me. Baby. Baby. Yes, now you're welcome because that's in your head, not just all day. That'll be in your head all week. I can promise you that. Thomas Edison is responsible for the most viewed video on YouTube. You didn't know that. Here's why he can be credited having no idea. I mean, we're using light bulbs, we listen to music, we watch movies, but now we all sing baby shark do do do do to do because of Thomas Edison. Here's why. Thomas Edison was the very first person to video animals doing human things. The big long word for that is anthropomorphism. It is when animals are depicted with human traits or doing human activities. Thomas Edison was the first to film this. He put little tiny boxing gloves on cats and filmed them. That's real. That happened. And so fast forward now, what do we have? Maybe we're familiar with keyboard cat on the internet. Maybe some of us have seen those paintings. Maybe we even have one in our house of the dogs playing poker. You know what I'm talking about? You see that old English bulldog with a cigar sticking out, you know, playing poker? I don't know that I'm supposed to promote that, but that's funny. I don't care who you are. That's funny. And I love dogs, they're playing poker. That's hilarious. Sharks swimming, dancing, and singing, anthropomorphism. We can thank the inventor of the light bulb, Thomas Edison, for that. Why do we say that? That's silly. But the reality is this your decisions will go further than you realize. There's no way he knew that we would be singing, baby shark doo-doo. He had no idea. He had no idea. Because I think if he did, he would have thought, I'm gonna not video these cats boxing. Nope, it's not worth it. I think he would have saved us all. But he did. See, Philemon has that kind of story for us. And you don't realize it until unless you dig in. Because Paul says this in Philemon, Paul a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon, our beloved fellow worker, and Aphia, our sister, and Archipis, our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house. Grace to you and peace from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints. And I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ. For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you. Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, yet for love's sake I prefer to appeal to you. I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus, I appeal to you for my child Onesimus. Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment. Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and me. If you were here last week, you understand that what Paul does here is he's doing more with sugar than he does with salt. You ever heard that phrase? You'll get more with sugar than you do with salt. Paul tosses in a little humor here because he's going to be asking Onesimus for something, or Philemon for something on behalf of Onesimus. Onesimus, whose name literally means useful. Paul writes, look, I know useful was useless, but he's useful now. And he says that you can see maybe he's, he's, he's, you know, Paul had a sense of humor. He may not seem like it sometimes when you read some of his writings, you think this guy is hardcore. He knew how to laugh too. And so he tosses in a little bit of that. And he's saying, Look, I'm sending him back, Onesimus, to you, sending my very heart. I would have been glad to keep him with me in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel, but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion, but of your own accord. For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a bond servant, but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. If I have wronged you at all, or or if if he's wronged you, if he's owed you anything, go ahead and charge that to my account. I, Paul, write this in my own hand. I'll repay it. To say nothing of your owing me even your own self. Yes, brother. He gets real. He says, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ. Now here's words that'll get you. Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that through your prayers I will be graciously given to you. Epiphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends his greetings, and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Here's what you have going on. Paul writes to this man Philemon, who is an influential person, hosts a church in his house, is well known in his community because of what we read of his stature here. The fact that he would be able to host a church in his house means that people knew who he was. And the fact that he has bond servants means that his estate is large enough to have people under his employee. Your translation may say something like, I'm sending Onesimus back to you, because Onesimus would have been seen in terms that we would understand as somewhat of a runaway slave. Now, this is a different contextual period. See, for us in America, there's a connotation to this word slavery, deservedly so, as the evils of it have been recorded in history, as we all are aware of. Contextually, it's a little different when we read it in the New Testament here. There was kind of indentured servitude that was utilized in society, oftentimes, if not most of the time, it would be because of a financial strain. There was some form of debt, and so they would enter into the employ of some form of estate or person as a bonded servant. The Greek word is a word called doulos. It is actually the exact same word that Paul uses to describe his posture towards Christ. He calls himself a doulos, a bonded servant named by uh uh uh belonging to and working for. And that's kind of the relationship here. Uh, maybe you were of lower means, and that was the only way for you to provide for yourself or your family, was to enter into an indentured servitude. And so what you have here is the Bible mentioning this bonded servant relationship, Onesimus as a runaway bond servant. Now, I want to make this clear because this question comes up, especially as I have conversations with maybe people who are new to faith or younger and they're getting to know their Bibles. Some things in the Bible will rub you the wrong way. And you thought, you're a pastor, you're not supposed to say that. It's true. If you've ever read the Old Testament, can I get a witness? You read some things that you're like, mm-mm, don't like that, don't like that at all. It's in there. I want to be very clear about something. Because people ask us, well, Jesus talked about this, and this is in the Bible. Just because the Bible mentions something doesn't mean that God condones that something. There are historical records and contextual understanding that we have that allow us to learn as much as we can from the Word of God. Just because Jesus mentioned bonded servants in some of the gospel recordings does not mean that Jesus condoned a posture towards people that says, you're less valuable because you look this way, came from these people. This is who your parents are, this is who your parents aren't, this is where you're from. These are your community uh background stats. Jesus doesn't condone that, even though he mentions it, and Paul echoes the approach, the sentiment, or the teachings of Jesus, because what does Jesus do? Jesus says, Whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me. So Jesus, as we understand in the context of the Gospels, does not simply teach or preach or instruct against the systematic symptoms of society, things like bonded servants. Jesus will instead go straight to the heart of the issue, straight to the core, and say, listen, it's level ground at the foot of the cross. It doesn't matter who you are, where you come from, what you look like. He would cross every line that society would try to create. Oh, you're a male, you're a female. Well, that means you can't do this, you can only do this, you're seen as less than, you're seen as more than. Society would try to do that over time. What does Jesus do? Obliterates it, crosses right over and says, Look, everyone, everyone has access to the goodness, the grace, and the love of God. Everyone. What does he do when it comes to societal things? People who were lepers, people who had leprosy, the outskirts and outcasts of society. And Jesus says, I've come for you too. He says this bonded servant, the person who is responsible for the bonded servant. What does Jesus do? He's not necessarily instructing sometimes in these cases against these systematic, symptomatic issues in society. Jesus, you will read, doesn't necessarily take sides, he takes over. And so Jesus gets right to the heart of the issue and says, doesn't matter who you are, salvation has come to you. If you put your faith in Jesus the Christ as God's Son, salvation, rescue available to you. If you turn from your own thinking that you can make your way to God, your own thinking that what you say is right is right. If you turn from your own sin, your own ways, and follow Jesus by grace through faith, you are saved. Period. Not comma. As long as you are like this, look like this, talk like this, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot. That's not what it is. He goes right to the core of it. And so does Paul. So does Paul in this moment as he says, Listen, I am sending your bonded servant back to you. And Paul had some options here as he gets to the heart of it. Because he tells him, he says, I want you to receive this bonded servant, this runaway bonded servant. I want you to receive him like you would receive me. So there's some dynamics here, right? Because if you had a bonded servant in your employ and they ran away, you had by law a right to get them back. But they also had by law the right to basically plead their case to a third party who would help mediate. And so this man Onesimus, who was once a part of this Philemon estate working for Philemon, we don't know what happens. Maybe he steals from Philemon. There's something, something he did caused enough of a rift to where he would flee and escape. And at somewhere along the way, he connects with Paul. Paul shares with him the gospel, leads him to faith in Christ, and starts teaching Onesimus what it means to know and follow Jesus. And in this process, he looks at Onesimus and says, You gotta go back to Philemon. And I'm gonna send this letter to my friend Philemon as I send you back to him. And can you imagine Onesimus, like, ah, you don't know what I did. This is not a good idea. I'd rather stay with you. And Paul's like, Great, you're of a big help right now. But there's a greater purpose to this. And so he does what? He sends Onesimus back to Philemon and says, when he sends him back, I could have, I could have just I could just make you do this, Philemon. He could play that whole spiritual authority voice in your life, Philemon, but he says, no, no, no, I don't want you to do it out of compulsion. Because see, I've heard of your love and the sharing of your faith, and it's blessed me and it's refreshed the entire church. See, you have a reputation, Philemon, of loving people the Jesus way. And so what does he say? He says, Perhaps this is why he was separated, is so that you would have him back. He says this, listen, Philemon, your bonded servant ran away. He found me. I introduced him to faith in Jesus Christ. I'm now sending him back to you, no longer as a bonded servant, but as a family member. Because I want you to treat him just like you treat me. Because he is now a child of God. Just like you, just like me. And maybe the reason is greater than you realize. And here's the kicker with Philemon. He says, Listen, if he's wronged you, I'll handle that. This is gonna bless you. I'm vouching for Onesimus. Look, I'll step in. But he says these words in verse 21 of this letter, confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. Why did Paul send this runaway bond servant back to Philemon? You know why? Because he believed Philemon lived like Jesus taught us how to live. It is very simple. He says, I thank my God for you every time I pray, because I hear of your love and of your faith that you have toward Jesus Christ and for all the saints. We say this here at Sunrise Church. Our mission is to help people know and follow Jesus. And we have a desired outcome of ministry here. We don't hide this, we are very upfront about it. It is simply this at Sunrise Church, our desired outcome of ministry is to produce fully devoted followers of Jesus. The way we define that is a fully devoted follower of Jesus is someone who learns God's word to know God's way, lives like Jesus teaches, loves like Jesus teaches, gives like Jesus teaches, and helps others do the same. When you do that, it shows up in your life. There is evidence in your life of your faith in Jesus. I want to ask you, I'm gonna show you a picture of some people, and I want to ask you a question. Here it is. Who do these people root for? Some of y'all said the Dodgers. How dare you? How dare you? Why, why do we? It's a joke, right? Okay, they're with the friar. You're like, okay, Scott, we get it. Who they're you know why you don't have to ask who they root for? It's pretty obvious, isn't it? If you notice here, Paul, when he writes to Philemon, he doesn't say, Look, I'm sending Onesimus back to you. I want you to treat him the way you treat me. And I think you're gonna be refreshed by him because he's now a child of God. He's put his faith in Jesus, he's now useful to both of us. There's a greater purpose here. And he doesn't say, Comma, and man, I really, really, really hope that you do what I'm asking you to do. He doesn't say that, does he? Parents, you're gonna understand this. I would like you to go get dressed and put your shoes on so we can leave on time. And you know what you think? Please, Lord, just today, just today. Some of you, it was a week ago. It's Mother's Day, God, on Mother's Day. Can I get a break? Can they please not spill or throw food at each other? Please. And you're hoping. Maybe you have that conversation with your spouse or that family member, and some words come out, and you're like, well, can't get them back now. And so what do you do? You think, I really hope they didn't hear that. They heard it. And you're like, oof. You make decisions where you hope it works out. My son and I yesterday tilled our ground in the backyard and planted grass. So this morning I did what any dad does the morning after you plant grass. I went out there in my crocs and I watered the grass. Happy as can be, just beaming with a smile. Look at this grass gonna water. It's the things you can look forward to. If you're younger in the room, things you look forward to when you get older, you get excited about watering the grass. Life's great as a grown-up. Remember when you were young? I can't wait till I grow up. Yeah, you can. Yes, you can. You know what it is? Bills and watering grass, because I gotta pay for the water that I'm using to water the grass. I'm gonna stop ranting. But we planted that grass, and you know what I'm hoping? I'm hoping the grass grows. Paul does not write to Philemon and say, hey, I really want you to do this. I want you to, that love and that faith that you've been putting on display that's been blessing the church. I really hope you do that with Onesimus. He doesn't say that. He says, confident of your obedience, I'm writing to you, and I believe you're gonna do even more than I'm asking. Paul was so confident in the testimony of Philemon that he tells him, I know you're gonna do this, and I'm gonna one up it. I know you're gonna do even better. He said, Look, I know I'm gonna show up to the birthday party, and you're gonna have a slice of cake for me. You're gonna have two, because I know that's just how you roll, Philemon. You are next level. And then Paul says something that just completely puts the character of Philemon on display, and you will miss it if you don't realize what he says. He then says, after telling Philemon, I'm confident of your obedience, I know your faith is strong, the love you show, your faith in Christ Jesus is on display. You're going to exceed my request and expectations. And here's how highly I see your testimony in Jesus. Philemon, I'm gonna need you to go ahead and get a room ready for me because I'm also gonna come stay at your house. That's right there. At the same time, prepare a guest room for me. Can you imagine doing that to someone? Listen, Philemon, I know you had a guy who worked for you. Some stuff happened. Look, I'm not in the HR department. I don't need to know. But something happened. It won't be good. He ran away, he quit, he's gone. Just so you know, I've been talking with him. He's good now. He's good, he's great, there's a greater purpose. So here's what I want you to do. I'm gonna send him back to you, and I'm gonna ask that you really take care of him, that you treat him like family, and trust that there's a greater reason to do all of this. Also, I'm gonna need you to go ahead and get a room ready for me. You imagine be a Philemon? That's a lot. Why would Paul write that? Because Philemon was a fully devoted follower of Jesus. He lived like Jesus teaches, he loved like Jesus teaches, he gave like Jesus teaches, and he helped others do the same. That's what his testimony was all about. You know why we believe that Philemon did exactly what Paul said, and then some why Philemon was worthy of this phrase, confident of your obedience? Because we have the letter. Think about it. You're Philemon and you get this letter. Paul, Paul, oh Paul, I love Paul. He's so great, man. He's like a spiritual dad to me. He's so great. Hey, babe, babe. Paul says hi. That's cool. Oh, what a great. It's cool. Thank God, man. That's so, dude. I try to be, I try to be a good testimony, man. This is wow, it's blessing other churches. That's so cool. And then, oh no, Onesimus, hmm, that guy. You're saying Onesimus is like in the kingdom of God now? He's in the Jesus family? Use okay, I get it. That's funny. Useful, useless. Okay, uh-huh. Out of it, you could have kept it. Why didn't you just keep it, man? Fine with me. I don't want to see that guy. You went, you're gonna do what? What? You're looking around, here's the deal. This church that Onesimus had, the church was not the recipient, or that Philemon had, and that Onesimus would have been in proximity to. The church was not the recipient of the letter. Who was? Philemon. You know what that means? Letter delivered to Philemon. One of the reasons we believe Philemon was worthy of the phrase confident of your obedience, is because Philemon could have looked around and said, No, I'm good. I don't need to do that. We have the letter. He would have just ripped it up and no one would have ever known. See, there's some historical things that you have to consider here. Why was he worthy? Confident of your obedience. You know why? Because Philemon lived the Jesus way. Philemon's life looked like he loved, knew, and followed Jesus. What a testimony for all of us. Does your life look like you follow Jesus? Do you look like you root for the Padres? No one had to ask who those people rooted for. What would your life look like at home if you lived, loved, and gave like Jesus teaches, and you helped others do the same? What would your relationships look like? What would your friendships look like? What would your workplaces look like? I have conversations with people sometimes, maybe on a Wednesday night or in between services, and they're like, oh, Pastor Scott, I got these people coming from my work, and people are starting to come up to me at lunch breaks and just say, hey, look, I know you're a Christian, so can can you like pray for me? And they're beaming. You know why? People are saying, you look like you follow Jesus. And it's building bridges to help others do the same. Here's the personal challenge. Imagine what your relationships look like, what your family dynamic looks like, what your workplace looks like. If your life looks like you love, know, and follow Jesus. What that would be in your life. What it would do for the people in your life. What kind of light that would shine. We'll talk even more about how to do that and what we see in this story next week. But I thought about that as a church, as sunrise church. You know, our mission is to help people know and follow Jesus. We have a desired outcome of ministry. We want to be a beacon of gospel light. And you start to think, okay, the reputation of a church is something that you don't consider oftentimes. Now I do because it's the world I live in and it's the seat that I serve in. But this is so much, uh, it's so much to easily overlook because you're thinking, well, this is a I'm a part of this church, and yeah, we do this, we give to the Salvation Army, we do foster care drives, we do this thing. What are we doing there? Now we're serving our community because, as unto the Lord, we should do that. But we are also endeavoring to shine the light of the gospel beyond the walls of this building because we want to be known. We want people to see sunrise church as confident of your obedience. And that starts with the Christian, right? We say this. The Christian life is not meant to be lived in isolation from others. It is meant to be lived in communion with God and participation with others. And a fully devoted follower of Jesus looks like one. And so, as Christians, as we learn to live out our faith, it shows up in our lives. Then it pours over into this larger community we have called church, called Sunrise Church, that allows us to build bridges to places in the community to reach more people because we believe Jesus changes everything, and people start to see this church as a church that is obedient to Christ. Well, you think about that. And if I can lead us for a moment and maybe help, help dole out a little bit of vision that I'm gonna ask you to carry. The power of a vision does not rely on how well it's cast. The power of a vision relies on how far it's carried. So I'm gonna ask you to carry some vision, and I'm gonna share with you a funny story, and I hope I don't get in trouble for it. Not long ago, we were at a game for our son, and uh we're sitting on the bleachers, and there were some moms near us who were having a conversation about church. And I'll just share this as a pastor, your ears kind of perk up because in San Diego, you know, pastors know each other sometimes, and we got some friends in places, and so you hear a name, and you're just kind of your ear kind of goes, hey, what? You know? And so we're sitting there, and there's people, they're about 10 feet away from us, and there's there's two moms, and one of them's talking, and she says, Oh yeah, well, you know, our daughter's in college now, and um, we've gone ahead, and you know what I tell her and her friends when they come over? I go ahead and tell them, I'm like, hey, look, we love that y'all go to church with us, but if y'all want to meet a good man, you need to go over to this church. Because they got a young adult's ministry that's got a lot of good-looking, godly people. And I'm sitting there and I can feel Robin squeeze my leg. She's like, do not interject yourself into this conversation. Because little do those moms know they're sitting 10 feet away from the guy who used to be the college pastor of that church. And I'm like, oh, really? There's attractive people over there. Hmm. And you and she's just like, don't, don't do it, don't do it, don't do it. I'm like, okay. Husbands, sometimes submitting to the wisdom of your wife, good thing. That has nothing to do with the message, that's just free tip. Because I love you, and I want you to have harmony in your house. But they go on talking. And they're like, oh yeah, because you know, this group, they got a lot. And then they said, Oh, yeah, well, whatever happened to so. Well, so and so, you know, they go to this church now because through COVID, their pastor stepped up and really stuck it to the governor. And I was like, Oh, shoot. He brought out this thing on stage, and they just said, Oh, this, whatever, and bob and there. We love that they supported this particular candidate. And so we they go there because they're really into that. And you're just kind of sitting, I'm just sitting there listening, and I'm like, what is going on? It's like, oh yeah. And then so and so goes over here because oh man, have you ever seen their musical performances? And what they're talking about is on stage worship. They say musical. They're like, oh my goodness, this one. They got a guitarist who can just play, flat out play. And I'm just listening, I'm just listening, and I'm thinking, what are we known for as a church? And I carried that with me. And I want to boldly say this to you as your pastor, if you will allow me to lead us in the direction of our vision as a church, I hope that our church is known as a place and a people who love Jesus, know Jesus, follow Jesus, and help others do the same. That's what I hope this church is known for. And I'm gonna ask you in your own life to learn God's word, to know God's way. Live, love, give like Jesus teaches, and help others do the same. So that in our own lives, we would be worthy of a letter that says, confident of your obedience, I write to you because I know. Does your life look like you know and follow Jesus? Because when it does, it translates and impacts more people than you may even realize. Next week, we're going to look at just how far that testimony carried. So when you think you're just inventing a light bulb, you might actually be inventing baby shark. In those daily decisions that you make to live, love, and give like Jesus teaches, and how far that might carry in your life. And to continue to see what God does. Because our church, I also have these conversations. Dude, what's going on over at sunrise, man? We hear this like a bunch of y'all are like on school campuses, and there's like, I heard y'all had to split the rooms in the nursery because you got so many kids and you're baptizing people, and I'm like, Yeah, you know what's going on at sunrise? We help people know and follow Jesus, and we mean it. And they're like, oh, we're building that reputation. Now imagine we all carry that vision with us. That seat that might be empty next to you won't be empty in a year. Because we live, love, and give like Jesus teaches, and we help others do the same. Imagine what that looks like in your own life. Continue to jump in to being a church known for that. So that you would get that letter on a personal level, and that our church would get that letter on a communal level. Because we help people know and follow Jesus. Pray with me, and you can linger in the lobby as we wrap up service. God, thank you again for your word. Thank you for the baptisms we've been able to celebrate, for the generosity of our church that we're able to remember and celebrate as we fill up rooms full of stuff to bless people. Thank you for the challenge of your word. I pray that that is what infiltrates us, inspires us, and is implemented in our lives. So that what we have learned here doesn't get left here, but that we take it with us. So that we too would be worthy of those words, confident of your obedience. God bless your church, lead your people. So in your name we pray. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 37:41

Thank you so much for joining us today at Sunrise Church. We hope this message encouraged you and blessed you. If one of the ways that you choose to worship with us here at Sunrise is by giving online, there's a link right here that you can follow and it'll take you to that payment portal. Everything that you donate helps not only go towards reaching people in the greater San Diego area, but also all around the world. If you want to get further connected, whether in person or online, you can email this email right here, and either myself or some one of our team members will be there to answer it and help you get connected in any way that you can. Thank you so much for joining us.